Titans complete sweep of division-leading Royals

Hard to believe as it may seem, anyone who’s been paying attention lately might not be as surprised at the weekend’s results after Trenton’s 5-3 win over the Atlantic Division leaders at the Sovereign Center.

Reading (35-16-3-3) had accumulated a huge cushion prior to the end of the NHL lockout, but after the January 12 return of the big leagues, things haven’t been so great for the Royals, who are just 9-7-2-1 since. On the heels of a 6-0 dismantling at the hands of Trenton (22-26-4-4) on Saturday, things seemed to finally hit rock bottom on Sunday afternoon.

After Brandon Anderson, who was in net for all six goals on Saturday, was recalled to AHL Hershey, Royals head coach Larry Courville was left to scramble for a new goaltender and ended up placing a phone call to veteran netminder Frederic Cassivi. While Cassivi won a Calder Cup with the Hershey Bears and has a handful of games worth of NHL experience, he also hasn’t played professionally since the 2009-10 season.

“I remember when I came out of retirement after a year and a half to play with Johnstown, I thought I was going to die,” Courville joked. “And he’s been out for three years. But Freddy’s a good friend of mine, and I give him credit...he did fine, I think there were some goals he’d probably like to have back, but again, he hasn’t played hockey in three years.”

In the other net, Brooks Ostergard might have been feeling the same way. In reality, it’s been just two and a half months since his last in-game action, but things have been just as bizarre for him. The 25-year-old, on his fourth ECHL team of the season, made just his second professional start and fourth appearance overall, but earned his first career win by stopping 36 of Reading’s 39 shots, including a 30-shot barrage over the final 40 minutes of play.

“It’s a pretty surreal moment right now,” Ostergard said. “I really appreciate all the effort from the guys, just sacrificing and saving a few goals there at the end. (This season) has been extremely frustrating, but I’ve just tried to stay in the moment.”

After enduring constant personnel issues over the past two years, Titans head coach Vince Williams relished finally having a chance for the shoe to be on the other foot when it came to Reading’s woes.

“I’m not going to feel sorry for them. We were in the same situation just last year,” said Williams of the memorable day in which he lost both his goaltenders the morning of the game.

“I had one guy come out of a cab for the first period. So I don’t feel sorry for anybody, no disrespect. Everybody goes through it, we’ve sure gone through it at every level.”

Although still a whopping 24 points behind Reading in the standings, Trenton finally has their signature weekend, accumulating five out of a possible six points, including all four against a team that Williams has consistently called the best in the ECHL. The Titans used goals from Blake Kessel, Stephen Schultz, Bryan Haczyk, Jacob Cepis and J.S. Berube to top Reading, but also continued to stifle the Royals’ power play, having now shut them down on 51 straight man advantages.

“I think that’s probably the only team we haven’t scored a power play goal against,” Courville said. “Basically, either we’ve got to change things or we’ve got to execute better.”